Moldova is home to about 110,000 Roma people and the steps taken by the government to ensure that the ethnicity is represented in elected offices have been ineffective, thinks Ion Duminică, expert with the East-European Foundation. Speaking during a press club meeting, Ion Duminică said only three Roma were now on all electoral tickets combined.

Since Moldova gained independence, the Roma people haven’t had a single representative in Parliament or in top government offices. To increase representation of ethnic minorities, the expert suggests the political parties promoting them should have a reduced electoral threshold.

Eugen Munteanu, of the Moldovan Association of the Deaf, says people with hearing impairments also face this problem, with not a single candidate representing their community in the upcoming elections. Another problem they face is access to information, as no competitor bothered to render their manifestos in any sign-language form or hold meetings with the community. Televised debates, according to Munteanu, have also remained inaccessible in this respect.

Munteanu announced that five polling stations would have a sign language interpreter to facilitate the voting process, in addition to signboards giving guidance, and two other interpreters would offer assistance at the Central Election Commission.

Dana Munteanu, a CEC official, says that the electoral body has, as always, ensured that the visually impaired are able to vote independently, by providing them with tactile voting devices and magnifiers. Additionally, at three stations in Chisinau, Balti and Basarabeasca, special closed-circuit television systems will be in place to magnify ballots by 60 times. To inform the hearing-impaired people, the CEC incorporated sign language in all it video spots. For people with locomotor disabilities, Dana Munteanu admits that many polling stations remain inaccessible despite constant reminders to the local authorities to provide adaptations.